Adoring Nymphadora
by Pheo
Summary: An RT saga that begins during their first meeting. Companion piece with Moony Over Moony.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Adoring Nymphadora

**Author**: Pheo

**Rating**: T

**Spoilers**: Yes

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing.

**A/N**: I'm hoping to write two companion pieces: this one, and "Moony Over Moony." But we'll see how that goes.

Sirius Black laughed maniacally, sputtering butterbeer all over the kitchen table at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. "So then old Snivellus was hanging upside-down, his bloody underpants there for all to see—and let me tell _you_, they were the most gray, filthy things--"

Remus Lupin shook his head, not bothering to look up from his book. He had heard this story too many times—and, in fact, had witnessed the very event himself. While he would not deprive Sirius from any pleasures he might partake—especially these days—he certainly didn't want to encourage him, either, especially since the Order was to convene shortly for a meeting, and the Severus Snape was likely to attend. He simply reached for his favorite mug from the cupboard—the green one, with the fewest chips—and started to pour tea into it when he heard the oddest sound.

It was a tinkling, feminine laughter.

Sirius was definitely not entertaining Mundugus Fletcher tonight.

Remus could see Mundugus now, actually—asleep, as usual, in the corner, with a haggard cloak draped over his form. Slowly, he turned, and saw that the oddest sound was accompanied by an even odder sort of creature.

It was a woman, of course—but she certainly didn't look like any woman he'd ever seen, especially a woman who belonged to the Order of the Phoenix. Her hair spiked up around her ears elfishly, and it was the loudest, most…pink… shade of… pink… he'd ever encountered. Her elbows were bent upon the old table as she leaned forward to listen to Sirius's every word, and there were more holes in her Muggle pants than there were threads. Her eyes were wide and riveted in her heart-shaped face, and he counted at least three piercings in the ear he could see. Her small pink mouth laughed heartily, openly, and when she saw him looking at her, she gave an impish grin. "Wotcher."

She was the loveliest thing he'd ever seen.

"Moony!" Sirius shouted, as if he hadn't just seen him hours ago. "Meet my little cousin, Nympha--"

"Don't call me that, Sirius!" Suddenly, the sprite was an Amazon, rising up to her full height in her chair.

"—dora Tonks," Sirius continued as if she hadn't said a word. "Tonks, this is Remus Lupin."

Remus swallowed, prepared for the worst. He absolutely hated introductions—especially since teaching at Hogwarts had left his condition so public. He hadn't made a new friend, aside from comrades in the Order, since his before his teaching days.

But he quickly found that this woman was full of surprises. She grabbed his hand and began shaking it immediately. "Remus Lupin! Sirius has told me so much about you. And I've heard so many tales from your former students."

He felt his face grow warm. "Yes, well, you mustn't believe all that you hear. It's nice to meet you, Nym--"

She dropped his hand immediately. "Please, _don't_ call me Nymphadora, Remus. It's just Tonks. Wouldn't you hate to go by that dreadful name? Honestly, what was my mother thinking?"

Remus smiled to himself, thinking that the name suited her very much. "So how did you join the Order, Tonks?"

"Kingsley recruited me," she replied.

"So you're an Auror, then? That must be exciting." Remus was becoming more interested in this unusual young woman by the minute.

Tonks scowled. "Not so much for us newbies. Mostly paperwork—and I can tell you, that daft Umbridge woman can really pass it out if she's got you on her list. And of _course_ she's got me on it, as _unnatural_--"

"Umbridge?" Remus felt his stomach turn.

"Yes, I'd imagine you hate her too," Tonks noted absently. "Anyway, she's always--"

"Just a moment," Remus stopped her. "I must have missed something. Why would I—I mean, I do, no doubt—but why would you think that I dislike the woman?"

Her eyebrows lifted. "Oh, because of the werewolf decrees." She peered at him closely. "That's why, isn't it?"

Sirius ducked his head over his butterbeer, and Remus had the distinct feeling that he was covering a snort.

"Yes," Remus said slowly. "I just—I was surprised…" He shook his head and almost laughed. "I'm sorry, do go on."

She shrugged. "So every time she zips anything my way, it's always down to the very last piece of parchment—you know, no short cuts or anything—and I can just see the cogs in her disturbed little mind: 'That'll teach the despicable changeling!' Of course, I always use purple or green or pink ink so it confounds the toad even more--"

"Sorry," Remus held out a hand. He felt like he had walked into the middle of a film and had missed the entire beginning. "Changeling?"

This time, Tonks smacked herself on the forehead. "Forgive me, Remus. I feel like I already know so much about you but you don't know anything about me, do you?" She laughed a little, and her eyes shifted to mirror the color and likeness of his own.

He did a double-take, and peered more closely. He hadn't seen her do any spell work...

She rolled her eyes, and Sirius snickered again. Irritated, Remus said, "What is it?"

This time, Tonks scrunched up her face, and suddenly her hair was long and black; it looked exactly like Sirius's.

"You're a Metamorphogus." Remus couldn't conceal the awe in his own voice.

"Yup. So, as you can see, old Umbridge has it in for me, too—since I'm, you know, a _freak of nature_ and all." She grinned widely at him and winked, as if it couldn't please her more that she was a freak of nature.

Hestia Jones entered the room, followed soon after by Mad-Eye Moody, and the room was quickly filled with Order members. They gathered at the table to begin, and as Remus sat in rapt attention, he found his eyes wandering—for the first time during a meeting—to the young Auror on his right.


	2. Dinner at Grimmauld

Remus was finding it quite hard to swallow the vegetables in his mouth, but not just because of their temperature. Nymphadora Tonks had been regaling them all with her tales of both childhood and Aurorhood, much to a drunken Sirius's delight, and for some reason, it made Remus feel a bit ecstatic and a bit sick at the same time.

While he found the tales of taunting Peeves, impersonating Flitwick, and chasing after reported "dark wizards" who turned out to be no more than clueless Muggle band members or, in one case, a very nervous young mortician, very engaging, he also couldn't help but admire the way Tonks could tell a story. One minute, Filius Flitwick's pointed nose was in his face, causing him to nearly choke on his stew; the next, she was a famous Muggle singer with pale skin and racooned eyes.

"I did manage to get his autograph, though," she said cheerfully, bumping her wine glass as she leaned in for a bite of her own stew.

Remus stared, transfixed, as the lank black hair she had transformed faded and shrank into the pink spikes he'd seen when he had first laid eyes on her.

Amazing.

"Remus?"

Remus looked down into the eyes of the person he was staring at and realized that Tonks had been talking to him.

"Yes, Nymphadora?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound as if he'd just been staring at her and admiring both her ability and her appearance whilst feeling both elated and nauseated.

Her eyebrows drew into a perfect "V" and he wondered if metamorphosing had anything to do with it. Then he wondered if she had indeed known all along just what he was thinking or what he was feeling, and was either about to offer him some advice on where to shove his unwelcome and inappropriate thoughts or a sick bag.

But neither was the case. "_Don't_ call me Nymphadora, Remus."

Sod it all. She _had_ mentioned that hatred of her first name. It was easy to forget, Remus reconciled with himself, when it was such a lovely name to begin with. "I do apologize, Tonks. I had forgotten."

She smiled, the "V" was gone as if it had never been there. Remus wondered if she could metamorphose any other alphabetical—or numerical, even—characters in her own skin. Then he decided that his thoughts had just gone from attracted to mental.

"It's alright, Remus. Seeing as we just met, I think I can let this one time pass." She paused in lifting her goblet. "Just this once, though!"

She went back to her storytelling, this time a tale about a cranky old goblin who had reported a stolen tea set from a "dark witch," which had turned out to be a beady-eyed old squip who had inherited the old tray and kettle from a deceased friend who had worked at the Ministry.

Remus chuckled as she morphed into the old woman, a look of sheer surprise on her face. "Dark wtich?" she wheezed, her wrinkled fingers flying to her mouth. "Me? Heavens, I'd be lucky to pull of a card trick. Can't even get the lids off my medication, let alone do magic. Never was one for magic, you know." Tonks wheezed again, and Sirius laughed as Kingsley rolled his eyes, apparently having heard the story before.

Remus was delighted. He'd never met a witch so confident with herself that she would willingly change her appearance to something like this old woman so easily, effortlessly, it seemed, and do such an entertaining impersonation. Then he felt sick again because he remembered this was Sirius's little cousin he was thinking about, and that she was at _least_ a decade younger than him, if not more.

She went on, mimicking the old woman calling her grandson on a Muggle telephone to come and visit—"have you got any of that Loo powder left, Chester?"—so he could read her the instructions on the tiny pill bottle.

Tonks dramatically raised her hand in the air, her old woman voice quivering—"I don't ask you for much, now, do I, Chester? Your dear old granny?"—when her spoon went flying out of her hand, clattering on the floor beneath the cabinets.

"Bugger!" Tonks muttered, and this time Kingsley _did_ laugh—likely because it sounded quite odd from the old squib's face. Remus laughed as well, but then found that his laugh was strangled in his throat as Tonks leaned over to pick up the spoon, her jean-clad bum raised directly in his line of vision.

_Merlin_.

She wiggled it, too, just then, trying to reach the spoon, surely—but in the process, also making Remus certain that he was way too old for her because he knew he was about to have a heart attack.

"Let me," he finally offered as she wiggled further to reach the spoon. "_Accio_ spoon."

"Thank you, Remus," she beamed, sitting up; and as he gave the spoon back to her, his hand brushed hers; and as their eyes met, her face dropped the morph so fast he would have sworn it hadn't been there all the time if he hadn't known better, and that lovely pink hair returned, this time accompanied by a complimentary glow in her cheeks.

"Thank you," she said again, grinning.

Suddenly Remus felt very hot. Grabbing his water goblet, he managed, "Not at all."

As Tonks cleaned off her spoon, Sirius began boasting—with a bit of a slur—about their glory days at Hogwarts once again.

Remus, both amused and wary, said, "Sirius, do we really need to hear this story?"

"Yes, we do!" Tonks said, and Remus found the enthusiasm in her voice so attractive that he didn't bother to argue.

As Tonks listened to Sirius tell about the time they put a Singing Charm on Snape—they, of course, meaning Sirius and James, Remus thought, but didn't say anything—to make him break into Etheralla Dewlocke songs every time he spoke to Lily Evans, Tonks grinned, lifting her goblet to her lips.

Kingsley broke in to explain, at Tonks's puzzled expression, that Etheralla Dewlocke had been a lounge singer that would have put Celestina Warbuck to shame—with a rather misty twinkle in his eye, Remus would have noticed, if he hadn't been staring at Tonks once more.

He watched her swallow the burgundy liquid—quite gracefully, he noted absently, for someone who had dropped the entire basket of bread _and_ toppled her own chair just before dinner.

Her throat was long and lea— not swanlike because swans certainly didn't wear necklaces that looked more like dog collars with strange, neon spikey things sticking out from them, did they?—but still quite milky-looking and still very lovely.

Remus blinked and quickly looked around the room, as if making sure none had heard his rather inappropriate line of thinking. Satisfied that he was indeed alone with his thoughts, or as alone as one could be at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place these days, he allowed his eyes to leisurely scan her features again.

He could make out a small mole near her collar bone, which made his stomach drop a little. He decided that he liked that she didn't morph it away.

At the nape of her neck, where the finest little pink hairs lay, he noted that there was a tiny tattoo of—a badger?

"Hufflepuff?"

Tonks dabbed a droplet of wine away with her thumb and looked at him. "Sorry?"

So much for not voicing his thoughts aloud.

"I, ah, I asked if you were in Hufflepuff?"

Sirius glared—or at least, tried to, as he swayed a little in his chair—at his friend for interrupting his story.

"Yeah, actually," Tonks smiled, her eyes lighting up. "How did you know?"

Remus tried to think of something else to say that would cause her eyes to light up like that again but decided against all of them. Surely "there's something in your eye" wouldn't have the desired effect?

"Ah, you, you're," Remus glanced down at her. "You're purse."

Tonks raised an eyebrow, and followed his gaze to her rather large yellow messenger bag. Sure enough, it had a small bader button keeping its overflowing contents from spilling onto the floor.

"Oh, right." She pushed one of the srolls sticking out of the bag further in, then smiled up at him. "I thought you might have seen my badger tatoo or something."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Oh, indeed. I believe I may have seen that earlier, before the meeting."

She cast a knowing smile at him and he knew, right then, that he was done for.


End file.
